Polk County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 17,544. Its county seat is Benton. The county was created on November 28, 1839, from parts of Bradley and McMinn counties, after final removal of most Cherokee from the region that year. The county was named after then-governor James K. Polk. Polk County is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Area Statistical Area, which is also included in the Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton, TN–GA–AL Combined Statistical Area.
Meigs County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,758. Its county seat is Decatur.
Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Athens is the county seat of McMinn County, Tennessee, United States and the principal city of the Athens Micropolitan Statistical Area has a population of 53,569. The city is located almost equidistantly between the major cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga. The population was 14,084 at the 2020 census. The population of the zipcode area is at 23,726
Calhoun is a town in McMinn County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Chattanooga–Cleveland–Athens combined statistical area. The population was estimated at 536 in 2020.
Madisonville is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,577 at the 2010 census and 5,132 at the 2020 census.
Vonore is a town in Monroe County, which is located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 1,574 as of the 2020 census. The city hall, library, community center, police department, and fire department are located on Church Street.
The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee River a few miles west of what is now State Route 58 in Meigs County, Tennessee. The river is about 147 miles (237 km) long.
Chatata, meaning "clear water", is the original Cherokee name of an area located in Bradley County, Tennessee. Today the name survives in references to a number of locations in Bradley County, most notably Chatata Valley in the northeastern part of the county. Chatata was also the original name of an unicorporated community in this region now known as Tasso.
Great Hiwassee was an important Overhill settlement from the late 17th through the early 19th centuries. It was located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Polk County, Tennessee, on the north bank of the river where modern U.S. Route 411 crosses the river. The site is now part of the Tennessee Forestry Division's East Tennessee Nursery.
Hiwassee is a small village in Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States, which sits next to the Hiwassee Dam and the artificially created Hiwassee Reservoir, on Hiwassee River.
Conasauga Creek is a 42.8-mile-long (68.9 km) tributary stream of the Hiwassee River, located in southeast Tennessee, United States. It is not to be confused with the nearby Conasauga River.
The Hiwassee/Ocoee Scenic River State Park is a Tennessee state park in Polk County, Tennessee, United States, that provides access to the Hiwassee and Ocoee rivers.
Blythe Ferry was a ferry across the Tennessee River in Meigs County, Tennessee, United States. In 1838, the ferry served as a gathering point and crossing for the Cherokee Removal, commonly called the Trail of Tears, in which thousands of Cherokee were forced to move west to Oklahoma from their homeland in the southeastern United States.
Overhill Cherokee was the term for the Cherokee people located in their historic settlements in what is now the U.S. state of Tennessee in the Southeastern United States, on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. This name was used by 18th-century European traders and explorers from British colonies along the Atlantic coast, as they had to cross the mountains to reach these settlements.
Reliance is an unincorporated community in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. Reliance is located on the Hiwassee River at the junction of Tennessee State Route 30 and Tennessee State Route 315, 8.8 miles (14.2 km) east of Benton. Reliance had a post office until it closed on May 21, 2011; it still has its own ZIP code, 37369.
Candies Creek Ridge, also known as Clingan Ridge, is a geographic feature ridge located primarily in Bradley County, Tennessee, on the southeastern border of the state. It overlooks Candies Creek and is in north Cleveland, Tennessee.
Cherokee Removal Memorial Park is a public park in Meigs County, Tennessee that is dedicated in memory of the Cherokee who were forced to emigrate from their ancestral lands during the Cherokee removal, in an event that came to be known as the Trail of Tears. It was established in 2005, and has since expanded.
The Hiwassee River Heritage Center is a history museum located in Charleston, Tennessee which was established in 2013. The museum chronicles the region's Cherokee and Civil War history. It is a certified interpretive center on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Hiwassee Island, also known as Jollys Island and Benham Island, is located in Meigs County, Tennessee, at the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. It is about 35 mi (56 km) northeast of Chattanooga. The island was the second largest land mass on the Tennessee River at 781 acres before the Tennessee Valley Authority created the Chickamauga Lake as a part of the dam system on the Tennessee River in 1940. Much of the island is now submerged, leaving 400 acres above the waterline.
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